Kosh wondered around in his gaseous form for several hours observing his new place of residence. Unlike others of his kind, this Kosh (for all Vorlons are are Kosh), this Kosh had spent lots of time around younger races and was bored by Minbari. So he travelled the galaxy finding new and interesting races to meet and converse with.
[I've been here before, Earth, home of the humans. I should assume a disguise] he thought to himself and found a relatively secluded place.
Then Kosh began to concentrate hard and try and make himself corporeal. He was concentrating so hard, he didn't notice he had an observer: it was Brian, the Cyberman who pulled him into this dimension of Earth. The concentration made him glow brightly until his form was now complete. He had always been an avid fan of the samurai of Japan, so he chose a Japanese male for appearance. He was around 6 feet tall with muscles not normally on a 17-year-old man, but he was strong. Dressed in a Karate Gi, he looked to his left.
"Well, who are you?" he asked
"I'm Brian, a Cyberman" he answered
"Ah yes, I've heard of those; if you're here to conquer this planet, you will not succeed" Kosh said
"I ain't here to conquer shit man, I'm just looking for a place to crash for the evening" Brian replied
Unbeknownst to either of them; a pair of amethyst coloured eyes were watching them. Raven had felt a powerful energy output and was investigating while the other Titans took care of the spaceship, although all she saw was a bright light on her way, upon arrival she found these two. She watched the two beings with a very careful eye. Raven was about to leave when a voice called out.
"You can come out of that tree if you want Raven, we aren't dangerous" Kosh said with a grin
"How did you know I was there?" Raven asked as she floated to a safe distance between her and Kosh and Brian
"I have very heightened senses, that's why" Kosh replied with a grin
"Who, or better yet, what are you?" she asked
"Well, I'm a Cyberman, the name's Brian" Brian said with a grin
"And you?" she looked at Kosh
"Name's Kazuya, just your average Joe, having a chat with this gentleman" Kosh lied and winked at Brian to go along with it for the moment
"Right…Are you planning on doing anything illegal?" Raven questioned bluntly
"Hell no" Kosh was having fun
"Hmm" Raven was still dubious
"Lets make a deal, you meet us here every day or night, ah, what time is good for you?" Brian said
"11pm is fine" Raven was taken aback
"Okay, work permitting, just come down here, we'll be waiting and we'll have us a bit of a chin wag" Kosh said
Raven had no idea what was going on here, but she wanted to find out: and besides, neither Kazuya nor Brian seemed dangerous. So after giving the proposition some serious thought; she agreed to it. As she flew away, two things occurred to her.
[1, how did they know my name and 2, I think I just made some, friends] this last thought brought a small smile to her face as she arrived back at the T-Tower.
It was dark when Raven arrived back at the Tower: almost everyone was asleep aside from Robin who was pouring over more reports and other documents about Slade. With a grimace Raven remembered the last fight with Slade; they'd barely escaped with their lives and no one except Robin was itching for a rematch. When she got closer, Raven noticed Robin was asleep at the desk. Sighing, she summoned over a blanket and put it over him.
[Your dedication is admirable, Robin, but you need focus and some rationality] Raven thought as she also retired to bed.
Usually at night Raven was bothered by bad dreams; sometimes they were terrible nightmares. However as her head hit the pillow this night, a strange ease filled her. Once she found herself in her dreamscape, as usual, she saw all her demons; but she was not alone. A figure of pure white stood between her and the demons of her mind. It turned to her and said 'Friend' in a soft voice. Then it erupted into a wall and Raven just slept.
Across town however, Kosh and Brian were having difficulty finding somewhere to stay: Kosh didn't need residence but Brian did so they looked for one. One main problem was money: they didn't have any and ID; again, they had none. Brian turned to Kosh and asked him something
"Hey man, exactly what the hell are you?" he asked
"I'm a Vorlon" Kosh answered
"And what is a Vorlon?" Brian persisted
"I am an alien, roughly 100 million years old, human years. I come from a region of space far from this place and have more powers than you can fathom" Kosh gave him the gist of the information of who and what he was.
"Right…" Brian just took this to digest and kept walking
"Did you say we need a place to sleep tonight?" Kosh asked
"Would be helpful judging from those storm clouds" Brian replied
"Then maybe if we stop here and ask the nice young woman getting beaten up by her father if we can use a spare room. After we get rid of him of course" Kosh said with a, malicious grin
"I'm for that" Brian answered
"Good; you take the stairs, I'll take the window" Kosh allowed his shape to again change
Appearing now as an Angelic entity, Kosh floated up to the second story window. Inside a girl of around 17 was being beaten by her father, a decidedly nasty man with not an ounce of decency in him. He was obviously drunk but he was bigger and stronger than his daughter. He was screaming obscenities when a bright white light filled the room. The girl cracked an eye open and saw Kosh.
"Are you an Angel?" she asked, coughing up some blood
"If you want me to be" Kosh answered and picked her up gingerly
He turned his glowing red gaze to the father who now stumbled backwards towards the door. As he exited the room, Brian who had entered thanks to one of the many handy gadgets built into his body was waiting at the base of the stairs. Using another of said devices, he prepared to render the man unconscious. But he let it happen the old fashioned way and allowed him to simply fall down the staircase. Then using a different setting on the same tool, he put the man in a stasis field and stuffed him in a small cupboard.
"That takes care of him" Brian said as Kosh carried the young girl to another room.
"Nice digs, lets see" Brian went to examine the place a bit
"Oh score, widescreen HDTV with cable, DVD and 7.1 surround sound, fucking spiffy" he crowed and hoped onto the couch and turned on the TV
[He's a bit simple, but he's got a good heart and a level head. He'll go far] Kosh thought as he lay the girl down on the large bed of the master bedroom. It was full of distasteful pictures of women so with a quick twitch of power, Kosh removed them. Again the girl opened an eye and grasped Kosh.
"Are you my Angel?" she asked again
"My name's Kosh, and I'll be better than an Angel, I'll be a friend" he replied and held her hand tightly
"Thank you, Kosh" she said
"Try and sleep now, me and Brian, my buddy, won't let anything happen to you" he promised
"Thank you, I'm Della" she introduced herself
"Good night Della" Kosh said and sat outside the door.
Raven stretched as she got up that morning feeling slightly stiff from last night's exercise. After donning her cloak and grabbing a quick bite to eat she went out to the garage where Cyborg was practically having an orgasm over the sophistication in the ship they found last night.
"Man I could spend hours just looking at her, she's a beautiful little piece, but I gotta get inside her" he said and picked up a welder
"Here, I'll have a crack at the engines" Raven said and grabbed a drill, wielding it like a massive and misshapen 44. Magnum
Since helping Cyborg rebuild the car, Raven had grown very fond of spending time with him in the garage taking things apart, and now she was an engine wizard. After a bit of magic popped the bonnet, so to speak, Raven got to work on the engine of the ship. Which wasn't for long since she didn't recognise anything in the engine area, nor even sure if was an engine.
"Cyborg, you get into the ship yet?" she asked
"Hell no, this alloy is so tough: I shot it with my canon and it just took it like breath" Cyborg was clearly impressed
"Oh well, if that's that then I'm going out" Raven said and walked out of the garage
After changing into more 'social' clothing; Raven left to go shopping; she may have been a girl of great power but she was a girl, and girls love to shop. With a bank card in hand and a bit of disguise to stop the general public from recognising her; Raven set about to shop.
Raven was on her third store, a bookshop when she spied a familiar face, 2 actually across the hall having lunch: Kazuya and Brian; with them was a girl around her age. They were all laughing and joking with each other. Then Kazuya saw her and waved Raven over to them.
"Yo Raven, come join us, lunch is on me" Kazuya said
[Can't hurt] she decided and sat down
"Hello Kazuya, Brian: how are you?" she asked
"Fine, how bout you Rae?" Brian asked, lighting up a cigarette
"I'll be better if you put that out" she replied
"Sorry Rae, but its me one vice, don't begrudge me it" Brian said
"How did you get mixed up with these two?" Raven asked Della, shaking her head
"They saved my life; Angels from above almost" Della explained cryptically
"Angels?" Brian said, quirking his eyebrow at Kazuya (Kosh)
"Long story" he replied, giving Della a look
[Oh, I get it] Della thought
"Yeah, Kaz here jumped in through the window, scared the crap out my dad. He fell down the stairs and Brian locked him in a closet" she explained
Brian sniggered and took a swig of VB while Kosh downed a glass of lemonade. Raven just looked at Della and tried to figure out what the connection really was between the three. After about five minutes she gave up; each one of these people was beyond weird; then again this was coming from her. So in an act of unusual sociable behaviour, Raven smiled and took a drink also.
Deep in his hideout, Slade was plotting: he'd tried almost every way to get Robin over to his side and so far none had worked; although the one that produced the best and nearest result was the one where he kidnapped Starfire. He'd searched her mind and came to the conclusion that although the kind of love between them wasn't the one he assumed was there, he knew that kidnapping one of the Titans was pointless because the remaining ones could come and get the one.
"However, what if I kidnapped all of them, except Robin. He can't fight crime, the other super villains and save his friends at the same time, as much as he wishes he was like his mentor he is not, he will bend to my will then" Slade cooked up a plan that might just work; he pressed a button on his chair
"Jinx, get yourself and your buddies in here now: I have a task for you" he said
A 'yes sir' crackled from the speakers and soon Jinx and Slade's other minions were before him. He then explained what they were going to do: they were going to kidnap every single Titan except Robin. When they asked how, Slade smiled and went over to a bench and revealed a new weapon he'd been working on for the past 8 months: a stasis gun.
"Use this, it will put them in suspended animation for about 4 hours: then bring them back here and I will put them in tubes to make the state indefinite" he explained and handed the weapon to Gizmo
"Okay boss, this should be fun" Jinx giggled, while Gizmo drooled over the weapon. Cinderblock remained quiet
"Go" Slade said and sat down, watching his minions flutter away.
Once they were gone; a dark shape from behind Slade's throne emerged: this creature was about 7 feet tall and had an insect shape, with lots of long spines and horns on the body, two long ones went of the shoulders. Two arms and triangle shaped head and six small slits running parallel down the face that glowed gold: these were its eyes. The alien was jet black aside from its eyes. It turned its head to Slade and spoke in a strange language of squeaks and screeches.
"Don't worry, the Titans are the only thing on earth that would cause you a problem, and the Justice League but they aren't an issue at the moment" Slade replied
"Good" the Shadow said.